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Seeing Aliens and Witches Fly

Seeing witches and aliens fly:

There are many similarities not covered in this article about various connections in sex abuse and alien abductions or interventions. One I did not see is what has been shown as the cause of all the fuss which was nothing to do with witchcraft. Not to suggest psychiatry is not a form of witchcraft or delusional Freudian obsessions and compulsions. That cause might have a lot to do with what ails people experiencing visions of aliens rather than sugarplums and such. In Salem it was a fungus in their bread - called ergot. Today we have allergies caused by food additives and toxic drug build up from over the counter drugs. It may not be a good thing to have mind control but the growing number of idiotic cultists could warrant the use of remote implanting and more.

"Both the claims of satanic ritual abuse and abductions by space aliens have similarities to the Salem witchcraft trials. Almost certainly the definitive work on devil worship in Salem Village (the town of Salem was almost completely unaffected) in Massachusetts in 1692 is Starkey's The Devil in Massachusetts (1949).

The sufferers generally were adolescent girls. Starkey points out the dullness of their lives, their relatively low status, the fact that their lives were "on hold" until they married, the general public interest in witchcraft, the willingness of the clergy (the psychotherapists of that era) to believe their claims, their "contagious" influences on one another's claims of victimization, their increased status that resulted from these claims, and the validation of their claims from community support that led to the deaths of many of those whom they accused.

Many women, and a few men, were hanged and one man was pressed to death as a result of accusations of witchcraft made against them by adolescent girls. This evidence brought against the convicted witches was spectral evidence. The accusers "saw" events, such as witches flying to satanic rituals in the Reverend Parris's orchard, "saw" evil spirits at the witchcraft trials, and "felt" the strength of these spirits as they choked their victims while in the act of accusing the witches persecuting them.

As Starkey notes (1949, p. 251), Salem Village was "so odd a site for God to choose as the battleground between heaven and hell." The infestation of witches began in the Reverend Parris's own kitchen, where Tabitha, a Black slave, informed a group of adolescent girls on the art of magic. Among the visitors to Tabitha's kitchen was Ann Putnam. Her mother, a semi-invalid, had persons she regarded as enemies in Salem. Ann was very close to her mother. Ann first, then other young women, accused persons (almost all women) residing in Salem village of witchcraft. The idea of witchcraft was in the air; four children in Boston had been bewitched six years earlier and it took the work of four ministers, including the redoubtable Cotton Mather, and the hanging of the witch, to restore the children to normalcy. Mather's book on the topic had wide circulation and the Reverend Parris is known to have had a copy (Starkey, 1949, pp. 21-22). The symptoms experienced by the young women of Salem Village were the same as those earlier experienced by the children in Boston. Starkey also notes other means by which these young women could develop parallel sets of symptoms to earlier cases and to one another.

Some of the accused managed to escape, but of those tried, all were convicted and all put to death except (as the accusations spread) those who were willing to turn "state's evidence" and testify against others. Notably pious persons, such as Rebecca Nourse, died by hanging.

The young women afflicted by witches were sought out as witch-finders by other communities, but began to suffer defeats. They identified Robert Calef as a witch; he began suit against them for defamation of character, and they fell silent (Starkey, 1949, p. 195). At Ipswich they met an old woman and had the convulsions that identified her as a witch, but the people of Ipswich ignored them. The same kind of spiritual messages that had identified witches told Mary Herrick that the wife of John Hale, a very prominent minister, was invading her dreams (Starkey, pp. 223-225). Other witch finders accused the wife of Governor Phips of being a witch (Starkey, pp. 232-233), and even Cotton Mather, Massachusetts' leading theologian, was accused (Starkey, p.265).

Respected citizens began to question the witchcraft proceedings. Judge Richard Pike wrote Judge Jonathan Corwin (one of the panel of judges hearing the witchcraft cases) arguing that trial procedures were questionable. Thomas Brattle, a wealthy Boston merchant, circulated an open letter stating that it was disgraceful that magistrates based their judgments on common gossip, irresponsible "confessions" and the pretensions of the afflicted girls. Neighbors who earlier feared to speak, lest they, too, be accused, petitioned for the release of persons accused of witchcraft (Starkey, 1949, pp.216-220). Dutch theologians in the former New Amsterdam, by then renamed New York, were questioned by Joseph Dudley, a former deputy governor of Massachusetts. They denied that spectral evidence (on which all convictions rested) could be trusted (Starkey, 1949, pp.238-240).

Governor Phips had equivocated, but the spread of accusations (including those against his wife), expressions of doubt by leading citizens, and the Dutch theologians' denial of the validity of spectral evidence, led him to change the rules. Spectral evidence was not allowed and 49 of the 52 persons scheduled for trial were not tried. Three were tried and convicted. Judge Stoughton signed their death warrants as well as those of five previously convicted witches but Governor Phips reprieved them all. Some remained in prison for some time, since they had to pay their room-and-board before release, but eventually all who survived imprisonment were released. Despite the wholesale jail delivery of witches, the previously afflicted young women no longer manifested their seizures or other symptoms. They no longer had a responsive audience.

Some of the judges, such as Samuel Sewall, admitted error, which others such as Stoughton and Hathorne (grandfather of Nathaniel Hawthorne, who wrote of these events in "Goodman Brown") did not. Reparations were made to surviving witches and children of those killed. Starkey notes:

Massachusetts had come out of its delusion not without honor. There had been misery, injustice, bloodshed, but at the worst nothing on such a scale as had in the recent past been suffered in witch-hunts in England, on the Continent, and in Sweden. In comparison with historical precedents, the panic in Massachusetts had been distinguished less by its violence than by the pertinacity with which sanity had struggled for domination from the first and by which it had finally prevailed (Starkey, p.29 1).

Discussion

The similarity between claims of recovered memories of childhood sexual abuse, satanic ritual abuse, and abductions by space aliens are clear. The same sequence of events occurs. The person claiming that such events have transpired (1) is unhappy and feels that "something is wrong," (2) with the aid of a therapist, begins to recall the details of the abuse or kidnapping, (3) further therapy, along with interaction with fellow sufferers, evokes ever more memories which are, in turn, (4) validated by the therapist, the support group of fellow sufferers (In other words - a circle jerk.), and the general community.

The events in Salem Village followed a similar pattern. The girls led relatively low-status and boring lives until they became involved in allegations of witchcraft."

"Whether you believe in a demon of the air or in a factor in the unconscious that plays diabolical tricks on you is all one to me. The fact that man's imagined unity is menaced by alien powers remains the same in either case". Carl Jung "The Archetypes of the Collective Unconscious

"In the late 1600s, the Puritan settlement of Salem in Massachusetts toppled into chaos when accusations of witchcraft began to appear. Two young girls, aged nine and eleven, were said to have fallen victim to fits “beyond the power of Epileptic Fits or natural disease,” including screams, strange contortions, and throwing objects. The village doctor, unable to explain the symptoms, suggested that witchcraft may be afoot in Salem. Others in the settlement began to exhibit similar inexplicable behavior, and shortly the accusations began to fly.

The infamous trials that followed left nineteen people hanged to death, and scores of others imprisoned under suspicion of supernatural wrongdoing. Today, few would suggest that those punished were actually guilty of witchcraft, but the true cause of the errant behavior in Salem’s citizens is still a mystery. One theory— perhaps the most intriguing yet offered— suggests that the community’s rye crop may have been partially to blame. Moreover, such maladjusted rye may have played a role in many of history’s mysterious events.

Salem, like many other communities in the past and present, harvested rye as part of their grain crops, and it was a staple in their diet. But it turns out that rye grass is susceptible to a particular fungus called Claviceps purpurea which infects the edible portions of the plant. During the ergot stage of this fungus’ development, a cocktail of interesting alkaloids are present which will cause problems with circulation and neurotransmission when ingested by humans. A woman named Linnda Caporael was the first to suggest that Ergot of Rye may have contributed to the madness in the Salem trials.

Ergot poisoning, or ergotism, can cause a distressing array of side effects. The initial symptoms are usually gastrointestinal in nature, including nausea, diarrhea, and vomiting. Shortly thereafter the sufferer may experience a gamut of symptoms caused by ergot’s influence on the central nervous system. These usually start with relatively benign sensations such as headaches, “pins and needles,” and burning/itching sensations on the skin; but the the experience can escalate into spasms, convulsions, unconsciousness, hallucinations, and psychosis. In severe cases, the body tissues experience physical side effects such as loss of peripheral sensation, swelling, blisters, dry gangrene, and sometimes death.

This menagerie of nastiness is caused by two characteristics in the Ergot of Rye: Clavine alkaloids, which cause convulsive symptoms; and ergotamine-ergocristine alkaloids which restrict blood vessels and starve the limbs and brain of oxygen.

Ergot poisoning has been problematic throughout history. In the Middle Ages the disease was known as “St. Anthony’s fire,” and it was responsible for countless limbs lost to gangrene and many deaths. Entire villages were sometimes known the suffer such symptoms, and it is now believed that these outbreaks were caused when a village bakery used ergot-contaminated grain. Monks of the order of St. Anthony the Great became skilled at treating the condition with balms that stimulated circulation, and they became skilled amputators. The cause of the disease was not isolated until the late seventeenth century, and it did not become widely known until the 1800s. Before that time, epidemics of ergotism were often seen as a punishment from God.

Today historians are speculating that some other bizarre events of the past may be due to ergot poisoning. For instance, an affliction known as “dancing mania” which struck Europe from the 14th to the 17th century may have been caused by the troublesome fungus. This phenomenon caused groups of people to dance through the streets of cities— often speaking nonsense and/or foaming at the mouth— until they finally collapsed from exhaustion. Sufferers often described wild visions, and continued to writhe after falling to the ground. Some also suggest that Kykeon, a popular hallucinogenic drink from ancient Greece, may have been made from ergot-infected barley.

Given the conditions, the idea that the Salem witch trials may have been fuelled by ergot poisoning is quite plausible. The season had been warm and the growing area was swampy, a combination which creates an ideal environment for Ergot of Rye to develop. Also supporting this hypothesis is the fact that symptoms characteristic of ergot poisoning occurred in Connecticut in the same year. The ergot poisoning in Salem could not have been severe, however, otherwise more dramatic side effects would have occurred. Salem was a community stricken with inequality, fear of the native Indians, bitter disputes over land, and sexual repression; It is likely that Ergot of Rye was merely a catalyst in an already volatile situation, and mass hysteria took care of the rest.

Of course there are alternate theories regarding the cause of the Salem Witch Trials. Some have suggested that Salem residents may have suffered from a form of encephalitis spread by birds, or possibly Huntington’s disease. Both are possible, though there is insufficient evidence to make any confident conclusions.

In addition to its colorful, trouble-making past, Ergot of Rye has had some influence in medicine in modern times. Because it causes strong uterine contractions in women, it has been used historically to induce abortions. Also, Dr. Albert Hofmann— the “father” of LSD— discovered the infamous mind-altering drug while experimenting with ergot. Although ergot itself contains no LSD, the two substances have much in common."